Studio

Digital Domain Media Group, the parent company of the Venice-based visual effects house, said Friday that it was laying off most of the 320 employees at its new animation studio in Port St. Lucie, Fla., and shutting down the facility. The company also announced that Digitial Domain Chief Executive John Textor had resigned immediately. Digital Domain, which created visual effects for such movies as "Titantic," the "Transformers" movies and "Tron: Legacy," said the moves were part of a "strategic realignment" to refocus the company on its core business of creating visual effects digital effects, CG animation and digital production for the entertainment and advertising industries.

The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival may have wrapped up last week, but still unfurling in Coachella's Pueblo Viejo District is an ambitious project that has brought together about a dozen muralists and international contemporary artists. "Coachella Walls," which has no formal connection to the Goldenvoice-produced festival, is billed as an "arts-driven community revitalization project. " Its organizers are Coachella-based Date Farmers Art Studios, a.k.a., the artists Armando Lerma and Carlos Ramirez, who grew up in the area and now show their work at Ace Gallery in Los Angeles.

Amid expectations of more coverage for West Coast games and events, ESPN is officially opening its 12,300-square-foot studio today in the middle of LA Live, the entertainment complex across the street from Staples Center. The national sports cable network, which reaches 98 million viewers, will broadcast its first 10 p.m. "SportsCenter" from the new studio tonight.

Matjames Metson's Silver Lake studio is in a 1930s Art Deco duplex perched atop a steep flight of aging, concrete stairs overlooking a cul-de-sac, which overlooks a hillside, which overlooks a bustling intersection that, from above, appears to be teeming with tiny toy cars and action-figure people. Inside, Metson's dusty, sunlit living room-turned-art studio is also full of tiny treasures. The assemblage artist builds intricate, architectural sculptures, wall hangings and furniture made from his abundant stash of objects, most of which he finds at estate sales.

In the northwest corner of Fran Siegel's studio, not far from a giant roll of bubble wrap, you'll find a horizontal band of wire netting suspended between a pair of slender metal armatures, several feet above eye level. But for a few scraps of foil and colored film tied to some of the wires, it isn't much to look at. Indeed, under most conditions, there is a good chance that you wouldn't notice it at all. When the sun reaches the right point in the sky, however, angling through a nearby skylight to fall directly across the wires, a twinkling composition of light and shadow springs to life on the wall behind.

This post has been updated. See below for details. The studios of KNBC in Burbank were evacuated Wednesday evening after a bomb threat, station officials said. The station reported the threat on Twitter shortly after 7 p.m. The threat "is being looked into by Burbank police," the station said. "Our news desk will be temporarily unavailable. " The studio is at 3000 W. Alameda Ave. No other details were immediately available. [Updated 7:43 p.m. Nov. 13: The incident was cleared and the studio was resuming normal operations, the station said.

The main problem with owning a network that specializes in 3D is that there isn't a ton of 3D programming around to fill the schedule. With that in mind, 3Net -- the 3D cable channel owned by Sony, Discovery and IMAX -- have created an in-house production company to make original 3D content. “With the industry now struggling to keep pace with the rapidly accelerating consumer demand for 3D programming across multiple platforms...the formation of a world-class production studio to help fill both the 3D and ultra-high-definition content voids became a logical next step in our evolution as a global player in the entertainment arena,” said Tom Cosgrove, president of 3Net.

Los Angeles police bomb squad members were responding to the KTLA-TV studio in Hollywood after a man called up and said he was going to detonate explosive devices on the property, authorities said Tuesday evening. A man called 911 and said he was "going to detonate" three devices, which were on the north side of the station at 5800 Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood, Officer Christopher No of the Los Angeles Police Department told The Times. Employees were evacuated, KTLA said in a Tweet.

Fox Filmed Entertainment co-chairman Tom Rothman, who has led the News Corp.-owned studio together with partner Jim Gianopulos since 2000, is leaving his post on Jan. 1. The unexpected move ends long and largely successful run atop the studio for Rothman, who first came to Fox in 1994 when he founded the specialty label Fox Searchlight Pictures. He previously worked as president of the independent studio Samuel Goldwyn Pictures. With Rothman's exit, Gianopulos will become the sole chairman of Fox, the studio behind "Avatar," "Ice Age," and "Prometheus.

Actress Anjelica Huston has parted with the five-story contemporary live/work home in Venice that she shared with her late husband, sculptor Robert Graham, for $11.15 million. The 13,796 square feet of loft-like space, some 200 feet from the sand, includes a 10,000-square-foot art studio that was used by Graham, a dance studio, a gym, a library/study, a media room, an office, three bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms. The home and studio share a central courtyard shaded by a coral tree.

Considered deeply uncool at one point, music from animated movies is back - and singing along is now not only OK for kids, it's something adults record themselves doing on their phones and share on YouTube. The boom in popular songs from animated movies comes after a long fallow period when the form yielded few hits in the music world, despite box-office juggernauts like the "Toy Story," "Shrek" and "Ice Age" franchises. Though all incorporated music in their films, it was rarely the kind that had come to define the genre at Disney Animation in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when it was making music-driven hits like "The Lion King," "Beauty and the Beast" and "The Little Mermaid.

Universal Studios Japan's Wizarding World of Harry Potter attraction will open July 15, the theme park announced Friday at an event attended by Japanese and foreign dignitaries. The $500-million Wizarding World, similar to an attraction that opened at Universal Orlando Resort in 2010, will include rides incorporating environments and characters from the "Harry Potter" book and film franchises. The themed land, part of the 108-acre theme park in Osaka, will feature attractions such as Hogsmeade Village, the Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey ride, and Hogwarts castle. Universal Studios Japan unveiled that castle -- the focal point of the Wizarding World -- at an event attended by Caroline Kennedy, U.S. ambassador to Japan, and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. ON LOCATION: Where the cameras roll Universal Studios Hollywood will open a similar Wizarding World attraction in 2016.

MBS Media Campus, formerly known as Manhattan Beach Studios, evacuated its staff Tuesday morning after receiving a bomb threat, a spokesman for the studio said. Mike Newport, a spokesman for MBS Media Campus, said the Manhattan Beach studio evacuated its staff as a precaution after receiving a bomb threat. Law enforcement officials set up a perimeter around the 1600 block of Rosecrans Avenue as they investigated the incident, according to CBS LA . ON LOCATION: Where the cameras roll Manhattan Beach Studios, formerly the headquarters of Marvel Studios, has been the site of numerous big Hollywood movies, including "Thor" and "Captain America: Winter Soldier.

Relativity Media is hoping to outbid the Walt Disney Co. for the popular YouTube network Maker Studios. Relativity, a Beverly Hills-based entertainment company, has offered to pay $525 million in cash and stock for the Culver City digital media company, plus as much as $500 million more depending on the financial performance of the company, according to a person familiar with the deal. Relativity has also offered a bonus pool worth $75 million for "key talent and executives," this person said.

Maker Studios said on Monday that its deal to be acquired by the Walt Disney Co. has already been approved, throwing cold water on a last-minute offer from Relativity Media worth up to $1.1 billion. "As per the announcement made on March 24, Maker Studios has entered into a merger agreement with The Walt Disney Company," a Maker spokesperson said in an emailed statement. "The agreement has been approved by Maker Studios' Board of Directors and the majority of its shareholders and is expected to close in the next few weeks, subject to regulatory approval.

Digital Domain, the Los Angeles-based visual effects studio, is bulking up -- north of the border. The company, recently acquired by a Chinese investor and now operating under the name Digital Domain 3.0, said it is expanding its Vancouver studio with new leadership. Veteran visual effects producer Kelly L'Estrange will head the Vancouver studio, overseeing all feature film production at that location, the company said in a statement. PHOTOS: 2012 highest-paid media executives L'Estrange has been with Digital Domain for 19 years, working on such films as "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring," "Apollo 13" and "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. " Joining L'Estrange in Vancouver will be 14-year Digital Domain veteran Swen Gillberg, who will be co-VFX supervisor for an undisclosed project.

When "Parenthood" returns on Sept. 11 for its fourth season, Ray Romano joins the cast as Hank Rizzoli, a curmudgeonly photographer who hires Sarah (Lauren Graham) as his assistant. When it came to designing a photography studio for Rizzoli, production designer Steven Jordan chose to transform an empty firehouse set on the Universal lot into a relaxed but elegant space complete with a darkroom, framing area and an alcove for hanging backdrops. “I wanted to create a space that was a little clunky,” said Jordan.

Lionsgate has Katniss, Tris and Bella, and now it has another young-adult hero -- YouTube star Freddie Wong. Lionsgate, the company best known for "The Hunger Games," "Twilight" and "Divergent," has made a multi-year deal with Wong's YouTube network RocketJump Studios to develop film, television and digital content, the companies said Monday. The deal gives Lionsgate access to RocketJump's coming video slate, talent and fans, and RocketJump will take advantage of Lionsgate's development and marketing abilities and add more long-form video to its growing roster of weekly shorts, podcasts and tutorials, the companies said.

The latest piece in Universal Studios Hollywood's $1.6-billion expansion debuted Friday with dancing, music, speeches by dignitaries and swarms of minions. The theme park's newest attraction, Despicable Me Minion Mayhem, was unveiled to the members of the news media and special guests; it opens to the public Saturday. The opening is set to take advantage of the crowds of school-age children and college students vacationing in Southern California during spring break. The ride is based on the characters of the two "Despicable Me" movies, which have grossed about $1.5 billion.